Let me say there are several people who presently just cannot do, say (or rap) wrong by me and jay-z happens to be at the top of that list. So, when he referred to the original ‘we are the world’ by Michael Jackson et al as one of those ‘sacred’ (maybe not his exact word) songs that shouldn’t be touched or remade, I sort of instantly agreed with him. However, after listening to and seeing the video of the remake, with all due respect Hova, you and I might disagree just a lil on this one because let’s face it; the remake was for a good cause. A very very good one if I might add and besides, (apart from that rap towards the end of the song) Wyclef et al did a splendid job.
Well, I just can’t leave that rap part for later. NOOOOO!!!! WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT BY THE WAY???? I can’t believe great minds like Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, Wyclef, Will.i.am etc will team up, make, sit down, review, master and REVIEW a song AGAIN, then decide to let such a crappy part find its way into a holy remake of a ‘sacred’ song. NOOO!!! Granted we are presently in this age where every good remix is characterised by some form of fancy rap or the other but W.T.F!!!! Like they would say in this country I recently visited; NA BY FORCE??!!!
Now, minus the above, GREAT PIECE! First and foremost, nice idea to leave MJ in it. The king of pop stood out from beyond the grave (not like you expect less right?). I have listened to both versions(original and remake) back to back several times and I felt very glad to conclude that these artists of the new age can steadily hold their own against the greats. Artist for artist, not bad at all. I was particularly impressed with justin bieber mixing with the old boys and girls (pray his career is not familiarly abruptly halted by the vices of his time: you know what I mean ;) and nice infusion of personal styles from lil Wayne, T-pain and Akon.
I think the major trip for me was getting to compare and appreciate the sweet voices of some of our female artists. Nicole Sherzinger, Jennifer Hudson (who needs to loosen up a bit when singing: thank you Jamie Fox! :D), Jasmine Sullivan and was that PINK??? You have to forgive this critic for not checking up on this to confirm but....was that Pink??..... GREAT voice! (at least contrary to what I used to believe). Kindly forgive me for all the bad things I have said about you in the past Pink. :D
And now to the reason why I woke up in the middle of the night to write this. The first time I listened to this remake, I was just waiting for one part. The part, in the original, where Cyndi lauper totally blew the tempo of the song to the skies. I patiently waited for who, of these present crop of male and female singers combined, would pull this off. I held my breath...... ..... ......then it came..... (OMG!).....and I still couldn’t exhale! (of course eventually I did :D). Permit me to say, without a doubt, that celine dion is unarguably the greatest vocalist of our time. I bet Cyndi herself yelled THANK YOU when she heard that part (wherever she is). Little wonder why they’ve begged celine to come back to vegas. Even the world would feel empty without her! Needless to say, my best part of the original remains my best part of the remake. God bless you Celine Dion.
When its all been said and done, one can only conclude that the original ‘we are the world’ is a wonderfully written piece, conducted by great minds and performed by exceptional artists. It is hence a great song whose greatness has lingered through time such that it is now referred to as a ‘sacred’ song. Credit must therefore go to the people that made the remake for being stoic, for giving us an equally breathtaking facsimile and for their great initiative though many of us would still prefer to always click the skip button whenever it gets to that rap part (oh that rap part!..... WHY?!?!?). I am principally happy with and for the artists that performed in this remake (with the exception of those that rapped of course!) and for this excellent attempt, I totally forgive them for daring to touch a ‘sacred’ song and I encourage Mr. Carter to do the same.
